News & Blog
by Elizabeth Balado — Sustainable Innovations
Elizabeth Balado is an artist, designer, and researcher from London, presenting a unique, experientially-driven workshop with her project “Blooming Minds: Social Printing”. Developed over the past year, the workshop combines the psychological and physical benefits of nature with community-based creation, by guiding participants to create their own prints. The workshop encourages participants to follow their own intuition to select and forage flowers and plants and then arrange a composition, before using a technique to transfer the natural dye onto cotton using a mallet.
She will be presenting a variation of the workshop at the KEYHOUSE during Munich Fabric Start, which will consist of participants applying the print technique onto tote bags, allowing them to create and keep their own work. Elizabeth’s research focuses on combining nature – especially the use of natural and recycled materials – and community, a social practice which weaves themes such as mental health while encouraging accessible creativity. Her current work can be found on her Instagram and website. Elizabeth is open to collaboration with foragers, biologists, mental health services and others interested about participating in further printing workshops.
Modularity is not a new concept. For decades, it has shaped architecture, furniture and industrial design. Applying it to soft textiles, however, opens up an entirely new discussion.
Creativity and curiosity have always been our driving force. Our work evolves through prototypes—never finished, always raising new questions about materials, processes, and possibilities.
Both the fashion and textile industry often celebrates creativity. Yet many of the industry’s creative decisions are made long before a designer ever begins designing. Colour being one of them. The thing is, by the time a designer selects yarn, someone else has already determined the available colours, sequences and combinations. Choice exists, but only within boundaries.
“Through hands-on experimentation, I explore the potential of new surfaces and alternative forms of leather, aiming to reconnect human life with the natural world as an interconnected fabric.”
